Film Without Film is a talk presented by SHIMURAbros in conversation with Keith Whittle. SHIMURAbros is a creative duo made up of siblings Yuka Shimura and Kentaro Shimura. They are researchers at Studio Olafur Eliasson, where they integrate elements of sculpture, installation, and avant-garde film techniques into their work.
SHIMURAbros practice examines the history of moving image from a unique perspective, transcending the traditional two-dimensional constraints of film. Through intricate installations and innovative reinterpretations of cinematic language, they invite viewers to engage with film in a new way. Film is the catalyst for their creations, and the talk highlighted their moving image installations, focusing on the formalistic qualities and contexts at play. It explored how technology and cinematic history influence the artists’ aesthetic and conceptual approaches to their work, research, and exhibitions. Through film, they familiarise themselves with the equilibrium between light and matter and through filming they convert light to a substance of that name. During screening, they retrieve light images from film. We could say that the nature of the representation of film is the mutual exchange of light and matter. Through their representation of light and the conversion of it to matter and back; we are confident of the insertion and expression of the literal light form.
Yuka Shimura, who was born in 1976 and holds a bachelor’s degree from Tama Art University and a master’s degree from University of the Arts London: Central St Martins, and her brother Kentaro, who was born in 1979 and holds a degree in Imaging Art from Tokyo Polytechnic University. After receiving an Excellence Award in the Art Division of the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival, hosted by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, the pair went on to have their works shown at the Festival de Cannes and the Berlinale Festival and exhibited by art galleries in Japan and overseas. In recent years the works of SHIMURAbros have been exhibited at the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, and the duo has taken part in the residence program at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA). In 2017, ArtReview Asia magazine named SHIMURAbros as a “future great”. SHIMURAbros relocated to Berlin in 2014 on a research grant from the Pola Art Foundation, where they are currently resident as researchers at the studio of Olafur Eliasson.
Watch >> Talk
Watch >> Interview (Japanese)
Recently, the duo was chosen to create the thirtieth commission work for the Aichi Arts Center and the Aichi Prefectural Art Museum, which resulted in Butterfly Upon a Wheel (2022), a series of video works that considers the ongoing issue of refugees, starting with Sugihara Chiune, the diplomat who famously issued ‘visas for life’ during WWII.On an arts grant from Pola Art Foundation, SHIMURAbros relocated to Berlin in 2014 where they are currently researchers at the studio of Olafur Eliasson.
Film Without Film was curated by Keith Whittle and presented in partnership with The Japan Foundation and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, home to the British Artists ‘Film & Video Study Collection, which holds a large amount of material for academic research in artists’ moving images.
Special thanks to The Japan Foundation and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
